


Painting Roses

by beeberry



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Shidge Week 2016
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 02:47:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8083708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeberry/pseuds/beeberry
Summary: Some drabbles for Shidge week 2016Teammates to friends to lovers.  Maybe romance is a little easier in space.





	1. Time Has Passed

_It’s late,_ was Shiro’s first thought. Then, in quick-barely-conscious-thought succession, _I’m tired, she should be sleeping, is something wrong, probably her family, Matt Commander Holt captured pain (physical) pain (emotional) pain (guilt)._ Then, a little louder, _I should talk to her._ So Shiro sat down next to Pidge where she was staring quietly at the green lion, something electronic and halfway assembled or disassembled in her lap.  


Pidge didn’t quite startle when Shiro dropped beside her, but she picked at the thing in her lap, whatever it was, like she had suddenly remembered it was there. “Hey,” she said.  


“Hey.”  


They didn’t bother with “What are you doing up?” or “Can’t sleep?” because the answers were tired and obvious. They traded small smiles thinking about the questions and how they didn’t need to ask them anymore instead of asking them again. Shiro leaned back on his hands and said, “Your hair is getting long.”  


“Yeah,” Pidge agreed easily, reaching up to fiddle with it. It was well past her shoulders now. She glanced back at Shiro, at his recently trimmed hair. “Think I should cut it?”  


Shiro shrugged. “I kind of like it long.” He reached up and ran his fingers through Pidge’s hair. He was sitting on her right, so it was his left hand and he could feel each strand. His other arm wasn’t quite sensitive enough for that. “Your hair grows pretty fast.”  


“It just seems that way because you all cut yours.” Pidge was the only one who never did. She watched Shiro’s hand out of the corner of her eye for a moment, and then looked away. “It reminds me of how long we’ve been out here.”  


That hadn’t been her intention, not at first, when she’s said no to a hair cut when Coran first did the rounds. She didn’t have to hide that she was a girl anymore, and while she adored her short hair, she had thought about how it used to be and “no” had popped out of her mouth without any more thought than that. After that she just rolled with the idea of growing it out. Lance, impossibly, had even found hair ties in his pockets. Even if he had only agreed to hand them over if Pidge let him braid her hair once. (It had been nice. Pidge didn’t tell him so, but Lance was delighted anyway.)  


Shiro put his hand down, shifting so that he was leaning closer to Pidge. “Sometimes I’m afraid to look,” he murmured. It had taken a while to set up something that kept track of time in Earth terms. None of them had really wanted to know.  


“Not knowing doesn’t change what’s true,” Pidge said. She pressed on a piece of her machine until it snapped into a new position with a satisfying sound.  


Shiro nodded mutely. _Maybe it does change something, though,_ he thought. “The unknown is terrifying,” Shiro said, thinking out loud, “but it leaves room for hope. It leaves room for you to fight.”  


Pidge made something else on the machine snap! She untangled a wire with slow movements before she acquiesced. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”  


“‘Never tell me the odds,’” Shiro quoted. He couldn’t quite remember who had said that, where he had heard it. But he thought, _One percent doesn’t mean impossible. I have to weigh the odds and make decisions on the best course of action as their leader._ He went on out loud. “Sometimes, we have to push on even when the odds are against us, right? I wouldn’t be dating you if that weren’t true.”  


Pidge laughed like it had been startled out of her and elbowed Shiro in the ribs. “I’m literally 50% of the female population of this ship, I think your odds were pretty high.”  


“ _Female_ population,” Shiro pointed out.  


“Don’t tell me I have to compete against the idiot brigade.”  


“No, at least not unless this ‘dating’ thing has just been a ruse. Lance’s reactions _were_ pretty funny.”  


“I _might_ fake date to freak him out, but I’d go for a more surprising option than you. Then again, there’s the jealousy aspect, maybe if I went with Allura…”  


Allura would probably have agreed, but Shiro focused on something else. “I do have a pretty amazing girlfriend.”  


“I meant the other way around, but I’ll take that compliment.”  


“But really,” Shiro said after they exchanged grins, “I’m yours. For as long as you want me.”  


“You’d better live a pretty damn long life, then,” Pidge said, leaning into Shiro’s side. “Oh, and you’d better be prepared to tell Matt and Dad when we find them.”  


“They _like_ me," Shiro protested. "I was practically family before, this just makes it official.”  


“Well, not official. Though we could do that.” Shiro looked down at Pidge, but she was looking at the thing in her lap again, picking at circuits. “Sometime, like, in the future maybe. Make it official.”  


Shiro had to look up at the ceiling for a moment. _Did she really just imply-- Couldn’t be. A joke maybe. No, she was serious, she just asked me to marry her._ Shiro bit his lip, feeling something like a smile tugging at his face, and once he let the thought in it was like a flood of images and ideas. Were there priests in space, there had to be, although what kind of religions they served would be-- Did it matter? Would Pidge care, probably not, it’s Pidge. Legally speaking, they were on a ship, and Allura was the captain, not to mention a princess. Allura would be ecstatic, and Coran would be, too, he would want to know all about Earth marriage practices. Hunk would probably cry. Lance, too.  


Shiro felt Pidge shift against him, and quickly ducked his head to bury it in her hair.  


“Hey, what are you thinking back there?” There was an edge of nervousness to her voice, and Shiro realized he hadn’t replied.  


“Yeah,” he said, hiding his grin from her sight if not her hearing. “That would be good. Really, really good. Sorry, my brain kind of… ran with the idea.”  


Pidge pressed herself against Shiro and he imagined she was blushing. “What were you thinking?”  


Finally, Shiro lifted his head. “I was thinking I love you.”  


“I love you, too, but don’t be a sap, you were thinking more than that!”  


“Okay, okay,” Shiro laughed. “I was thinking, since space sort of falls under naval law, Allura is captain, so she would officiate.”  


“Oh god, she would... not shut up about it,” Pidge said, wrinkling her nose, but she was smiling, too.  


“Right? And Lance, imagine Lance.”  


Pidge laughed. “Uh, so what if we just kept it a secret from him?”  


“How long do you think _that_ would last?”  


“About thirty seconds, but let me dream.” She was quiet for a moment. “We have to wait until we found Matt and Dad, though. It’s bad enough Mom’d miss my wedding, Dad would cry if he didn’t get to walk me down the aisle.”  


Shiro squeezed her. “After we find them, then. How’s that?”  


“It’ll do,” Pidge said.


	2. A Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe another name does change the sweetness.

“Okay, is anyone else still not used to hearing ‘Katie?’”

Pidge has to give Hunk credit. It took two weeks before he cracked.

Lance raises his hand. “Me! It’s so weird!”

“It’s her name,” Keith scoffs, at which Pidge has to roll her eyes. She knew for a fact that he twitched every time Matt or Dad or Shiro called her Katie, even looked around like he was expecting someone else to be there.

“But you’re still okay with us calling you Pidge, right?” Hunk asks, turning to her. “Or should we switch to calling you Katie, too?”

“I don’t care. I’m used to Pidge now, and even Dad’s figured out that that means me.” Pidge shrugged.

“Shiro calls you Katie,” Keith pointed out.

“Yeah, he got used to that real f-- ohhhh.” Lance cut himself off. His eyes went wide with realization and he grinned.

Pidge asked him flatly, “What?”

Lance practically crowed, “He already called you Katie, didn’t he?”

“What?” Keith frowned. “He never called her Katie before we rescued Commander Holt and Matt.”

“Not in front of us, he didn’t.”

“Ohhh!” Hunk was catching on. “Ohmigosh.” He turned to grin at Pidge, then tried to stifle it when she gave him a deadpan look.

“What?” Keith asked. “What am I missing?”

“Shiro called her Katie in private,” Lance said meaningfully.

“So? Why?”

Pidge cut in, otherwise this might drag on indefinitely. “Because we’re dating, Keith.”

“I know that. What does that have to do with Shiro calling you Katie?”

“What about me calling her Katie?”

None of the paladins had noticed the door swooshing open and Shiro walking through with Matt.

“Absolutely nothing,” Pidge said loudly at the same time Keith said, “It has something to do with you two dating.”

Everyone in the room except for Keith froze. “What?” he asked, looking around at all of them in even more confusion. “We all know--” And then it clicked.

Matt. Matt did not know.

“I’m gonna go,” Hunk said, falsely casual. “Let’s go, Lance, _Keith_.” He grabbed the other two paladins and dragged them out of the room. Lance seemed torn between staying to watch and getting out of the line of fire. Keith mouthed “Sorry” as they disappeared out the door.

“So.” Matt dragged the word out, looking between Pidge and Shiro. Pidge rolled her eyes while Shiro simply Did Not Look at Matt. “Shiro. My little sister? Wait until I tell Dad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued? (Not tomorrow.)


End file.
